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You’ve survived the breakdown of civilization. Most of humanity is gone. What weapons would be best for long-term survival in a hostile and primitive world?

A few survivalists follow the philosophy of Mel Tappan in Survival Guns. His feeling: You can never have too many firearms and too many calibers. A great article on TotalSurvivalist.com challenges that philosophy. It’s better to have a substantial stock of ammo for a few select calibers.

Makes sense. If you have 5,000 rounds for your 308 Winchester, what’s the point of owning a 30-30? Do you really need a 30-06 too? Not really.

Here are some of the top long term survival weapons:

1) Ruger 10/22. My first choice would be a Ruger 10/22 in 22 LR. The reason: The 22 LR with a well placed shot can kill anything in North America. In a pinch, it can serve effectively as a self defense weapon. It’s an autoloader. This gives you some firepower.

The biggest reason to put the 22LR first on the list is that it allows you to deeply stock your ammo supply. 22LR ammo is much cheaper than centerfire. You can easily squirrel away 5,000 rounds, 10,000 rounds or more.

2) A bolt action 308 Winchester. Why a bolt action? Bolt actions are the most robust rifle action available. They’re serviceable. With a few spare parts, you should be able to keep your bolt action rifle going indefinitely. Theoretically, the barrel will eventually wear out. Realistically, you’ll never fire that many shots through a hunting rifle.

Add a 2-7x adjustable scope on your rifle and you’re good to go. If it fails have a good backup sight. If you want the best compromise between shootable sights and robust sights, install an aperture or peep sight. It will out survive a scope and outshoot traditional iron sights.

3) A defensive semi auto pistol. The Glock would be perfect. So would be the Browning Hi Power. This gives you a weapon for person protection. Stock up on plenty of magazines.

4) Optional. Semi auto “Assault” rifle. If you can afford it, add a semi auto defensive rifle to the mix. If you’re going to stock 5,000 rounds of 308 Winchester, you could go with the 308 as your caliber. Given the cost of most of those rifles, I’d suggest looking at the AK-47 in 7.62 x 39 mm instead. It’s not as great a caliber as the 7.62 NATO but Russian surplus ammo is relatively inexpensive.

The AR-15 is another option. Tappan and many other popular survivalists poo-poo the 5.56 mm caliber. It’s not as powerful as a 7.62 NATO, but ammo is less expensive and weighs much less. If you were ever forced to flee, you could carry much more 5.56 ammo with you.

From my old book, Checklist for Survival by Tony and Jo-Anne Lesce, 100 rounds of 303 British (about the size of 308 Winchester) weighs 7 pounds. 100 rounds of 223 ammo weighs 2 ½ pounds. You can pack more than double and nearly 3 times as much 5.56 ammo as 308 ammo for the same weight.

People today just aren’t familiar with nature. This guy wanted to take a “selfie” of himself with a rattlesnake. Little known fact: Rattlesnakes are camera shy. It bit the guy. The rattlesnake bite wasn’t the worst bite put on him that day: The hospital charged him $83,341.25 for the anti-venom.

My advice: Have two weeks of food on hand. If you live in a bad neighborhood, purchase a firearm for defense and a few boxes of ammo. Install good deadbolts. Have a fire extinguisher, smoke detector, and CO detector. Once you have this, pay off the credit card debt. The interest on credit card debt can eat you alive. Every $1,000 in interest you save down the road can be used to purchase preps.

It’s a cliché, but being in debt is like being a slave. You need to free yourself first.

A company specializing in computer hacking into other companies was hacked. They were selling spyware to governments, police agencies, and anybody else who wanted to infiltrate your computer and spy on you.
Here’s a look into the strange world of computer hacking.

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In An Instant. This is a TV show about survival situations. This episode is about surviving a shootout.

This officer showed incredible composure and presence of mind.

Good lessons:

1) Lock your reinforced doors. The older gentleman wouldn’t have been murdered if he had a door that couldn’t have been easily kicked in.

2) Forget the BS about a handgun being something to fight your way to a rifle. Real shootouts aren’t Doom. The officer had an AR-15 in his trunk. He was behind his trunk. He had his keys. The shootout lasted for minutes. He couldn’t get to his AR-15. The weapon you start a shootout with is the weapon you’ll end the shootout with.

3) Pay attention to your instincts. Why was the guy adjusting his mirror? Why was the guy parked in this spot overlooking the store? When the officer had a bad feeling, he should have listened to his inner voice. Stop and don’t continue on as usual. Let the inner voice register.

4) Shoot and Move: Remembering that saved the officers life. If you’re under fire, get to cover immediately.

6) If you take a prisoner or detain someone, don’t allow them back into an unsecured environment where they could have a weapon. Taken by surprise, the bad guy put his hands up and got out of his car. He had an open container of alcohol. That’s enough reason to cuff him and have him sit down outside. The officer instead let his guard down, because he thought the guy was just sitting in his car drinking. He wanted to let the guy be more comfortable. The officer let him back into the car where he had a gun.

It’s another cliché, but in horror movies, a young guy hears a noise, investigates, and after a bit of tension sees a cat. He relaxes his guard and gets an axe in the head. Just because somebody puts their hands up and appears to comply doesn’t mean the situation is over. Don’t lower your guard prematurely.

What’s your favorite “Doomsday Preppers” scenario? Plague? Nuclear War? A “Doomsday Preppers” scenario is something worthy of the show “Doomsday Preppers.” Something to throw civilization into chaos and end our modern way of life.

Hardcore preppers now have one more seemingly far-fetched scenario that could actually happen: The Robot Apocalypse. Terminator movie meets reality.

Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant men of our time, says artificial intelligence (AI) represents an “existential threat” to humans.

Could artificial intelligence combined with robotics create a machine that could out think the best humans in any contest? What happens if these “devices” decide they want to control the world? Dispensing with humans or enslaving us wouldn’t be hard.

AI isn’t about a computer executing a fixed program. It’s about a computer teaching itself how to do something it hasn’t experienced. These are machines that learn. Meet Brett, A robot learning to fold clothing.

What if the Robot Apocalypse happens? What will happen? How to survive? Here’s my opinion:

1. We’re screwed. These robots could take over nuclear weaponry and launch an attack to kill off most of humanity in the blink of an eye. Yes. That’s the theme directly from the Terminator. If the AI creature doesn’t want to use nuclear weapons, it could create biological agents which would exterminate most of mankind. Guess 90% or more of the population dead.

2. Lucky for us, the robots would keep some humans around as slaves. We’re useful. They’d find some uses for humans. On the positive side: The human race isn’t entirely exterminated. That’s something.

3. Some people could live free in very isolated areas. The robots wouldn’t spend much effort dealing with wild humans. We wouldn’t be a threat. Living in remote areas and living as a nomad would be best.

4. Don’t f with the robots. Seriously. Knock one off with your 50 cal BMG and you’ve just become like a cougar in California that attacked a jogger. You’re dead meat. They’ll hunt you down and terminate you. The robots would label you a problemed human.

5. If you really must f with one of the robots, use the most powerful rifle you have. In my book, The Prepper Next Door, I half-jokingly write about how a shotgun isn’t a good weapon against a cyborg from the movie the Terminator. It wouldn’t work like you see in the movie. 00 buck only penetrates about 4″ of pine. That’s a spitball to an armored cyborg!

While I was writing about the effectiveness of body armor against shotguns, lightly-armored human hunting robots would be immune to shotguns and most handguns and most SMGs. Grab your 7.62 NATO or 50 BMG or your 338 Winchester Magnum.

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Speaking of powerful rifles, here’s an article about the US Marines and their need to upgrade sniper rifles.

Colt is bankrupt. I’m not surprised. When was the last time you purchased a Colt? For 1911s and AR-15s we have many alternatives.

If robots go ballistic on humans, I bet it’s because of the crappy Chinese parts they’re forced to endure. Here’s an article about counterfeit parts in American weapon systems. It raises the question: Why should American weapons depend upon Chinese parts at all? Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that?

When the Ferguson Grand Jury decision was announced, people who disagreed with the situation “protested.” A few broke the laws. As a crowd gathered and choked off a street intersection in Minneapolis, a car’s driver approached the crowd. The crowd didn’t make way for the driver, but surrounded the car and began beating on it. The driver, supposedly fearing for his well being, hit the gas and drove through the crowd. The horrible incident was captured on video:

In some survival situations you have no time to think. You must respond instinctively or as you’ve been trained. In most survival situations this isn’t true. You have time to think about your options. Most people don’t think. Stress puts people on auto-pilot.

If you take away only one piece of advice from my book or this blog, it should be this: In a stressful survival situation take a deep breath and calmly consider your options. Look around. If lost in the woods, sit down. Assess your situation. Then make a plan of action and act on it.

An important part of situational awareness is to realize your situation is getting worse. You must develop the judgment to see you’re in a survival situation! The sooner you can come to grips with the situation, the more and better options you’ll have to deal with it.

Looking at the video, we see cars taking evasive action to avoid the crowd. The traffic laws are ignored by protestors and drivers alike. Good people live their lives following the rules. But when push comes to shove and your life is at risk, the only law that ultimately matters is the law of survival. You must recognize when the laws have broken down or no longer apply.

Every year campers and hunters get lost in the woods. Many get frostbite and suffer hypothermia. Some lose fingers and toes before they’re rescued. “Too bad you didn’t have matches to start a fire.” “Oh, I had matches.” “Why didn’t you start a fire?”

The two answers: 1) “I forgot about my matches.” 2) “I knew I had matches but I knew this part of the park was a no-fire zone.”

Stress prevented the first group from assessing their situation. They overlooked important resources. A desire to follow the rules and a failure to accept they were in a dire survival situation kept the second group from taking an appropriate action. They didn’t come to terms with the reality that a line had been crossed and the usual rules no longer applied.

Look at the video. As the car approached the crowded intersection and stopped a distance from it, it should have been clear this wasn’t an ordinary day-to-day crossing at an intersection. Something was different. The crowd was growing and swelling out onto the street.

The driver moved forward. According to witnesses, he was honking. This was a fateful error. The driver may have believed the crowd would make way for the car. He mistakenly thought this was just another day. The driver failed to fully appreciate his situation was deteriorating.

If the driver had taken a moment to take a deep breath and look around, he would have seen he could back his car up and evacuated the situation. In our daily lives, we don’t drive up to an intersection and then decide to back away. You’d get a traffic ticket if you regularly drove like this! You don’t regularly turn around and go the wrong way on a road. You need to be able to think outside the traffic lanes in a survival situation. You need to develop the judgment to know you’re in a survival situation.

Reports claim the guy was blasting his horn as he moved toward the crowd. If this is true, this was an aggressive act and he’s partly to blame for the situation. Had he read the situation correctly and had good sense, he would have backed up.

Prepper Lesson: Look at your options. Realize when you’re in a potential life or death situation. Don’t make your situation worse by making horrible decisions.

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In the video, Props to the guy at the passenger side of the car who tried to keep morons from pounding on the car. If morons hadn’t been hitting the car, the driver wouldn’t have panicked and felt the need to flee. For the lady hit, this is sad. When you’re in a crowd, your safety depends on the actions of others.

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Wouldn’t you know, I sold my last autoloading rifle right before the riots. For personal defense in SHTF, I’m down to shotguns and 30-30s and my handguns. I’ve written about the 30-30 on other blog posts. It’s not the ideal defensive rifle but it’s better than nothing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb54yxdWfEY
Gun sales skyrocketed. Quote of the day (11:16): “If somebody break a window, are they going to get shot?” Ah, that would be a YES. I half expected the follow up question: “What about raping and pillaging? Are we safe on those?” A man has got to know his limitations.

I don’t keep a list of tools and supplies, although I should. If SHTF, can I barter off my 20 rolls of teflon tape?

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I don’t have a link to the article, but in the fight against Ebola, the key to maximizing survival is full hydration. Drinking 1.3 gallons of water mixed with sugar and salt daily gave patients the best chances of survival. According to reports hydration is just as about as effective as anything they do at a modern hospital.

“Inuit hunters in northern Canada. Older generations could track caribou through the tundra with astonishing precision by noticing subtle changes in winds, snowdrift patterns, stars, and animal behavior. Once younger hunters began using snowmobiles and GPS units, their navigational prowess declined. They began trusting the GPS devices so completely that they ignored blatant dangers, speeding over cliffs or onto thin ice.”

Continuing our discussion of PPE, Ebola currently spreads through open wounds, nose, mouth, and eyes. It is passed through bodily fluids. I wouldn’t want any on my skin, but if you had infected bodily waste on your unbroken skin through some accident, wash it off and disinfect the area. It’s not a death sentence.

Healthcare professionals treating patients are exposed to a much higher risk than an individual walking around town. Walking around town, there’s no need to interact with infected bodily materials.

Some healthcare experts and experts in infectious diseases say we (Average Americans) don’t need PPE. They say all that’s really needed is keeping three to four feet away from other people. Unless an infected trombone player blows a sneeze in your face, you should be fine.

In the event of a major outbreak, I’d be more comfortable with full PPE. Others would choose some protection for their nose and mouth and perhaps glasses for the eyes and nitrile gloves for the hands. Is this protection flawless? No. Is it better than nothing. Yes. Each prepper must choose his own level of protection.

A virus can live outside its host for a period of time before it dies. Everybody knows about the Flu. Somebody with the flu sneezes in their hand and touches a door knob. You touch the door knob and rub your nose. You get the flu. The same could happen with Ebola. Be alert to what you touch and be aware of how many other people touch it. Shopping carts are a great example. A shopping cart handle has been touched by dozens or hundreds of people.

There are several ways to deal with this. Wash your hands frequently. Even if soap doesn’t kill the virus, it washes it away. You should wash your hands vigorously for 30 seconds as a minimum. Just running a bit of water over your hands will allow a virus to remain. During cold season, wash your hands several times a day. Same goes for Ebola.

Some people carry packets of handywipes for surfaces. These have bleach or other ingredients to kill viruses. Clorox Disinfecting Wipes are one example. If you must touch something touched by many others, you could disinfect it first.

In the last post we wrote about touching the nose and rubbing the eyes. Minimizing that minimizes your chances of infection.

A theme of these posts about Ebola is the danger of transition periods and how to deal with them. If you’ve gone out and had contact you fear SIGNIFICANTLY EXPOSED you to Ebola, what do you do? If you just go home like nothing happened you risk carrying the disease to your family and loved ones.

Ebola has an INCUBATION PERIOD of 21days (this number could be higher according to some reports). This means that within 21 days of being exposed to the virus, you’re expected to develop symptoms if you’re going to contract the disease. If you aren’t yet exhibiting symptoms of Ebola, you can’t spread the disease. This could change in the future as the virus mutates.

QUARANTINE is the process of isolating somebody who could have a disease for a period of time to monitor them. Do they exhibit signs of infection? Are they all dead after 40 days? “QUAR” as in quarter means four and the term comes from a time when ships were isolated for 40 days.

You could place yourself in a self-imposed quarantine for 21 days before rejoining your family. What this looks like for a prepper’s family, I don’t know. Maybe you live in a tent in the backyard. Maybe you live in the garage. Just don’t let the wife get to use to the idea. After 21 days, if you’re well, you want to rejoin the family. Quarantine is a way to manage the transition period from somebody exposed to the infected world to the isolated and protected world.

In Part 4, we’ll look at what plague could look like in the modern world. What would happen if half of all people didn’t show up for work? Would people panic and would this be a greater danger than the disease itself? How long would a Ebola plague last? How would it likely end?